The X-men run missions and work together with the NYPD, striving to maintain a peaceful balance between humans and mutants. When it comes to a fight, they won't back down from protecting those who need their help.
Haven presents itself as a humanitarian organization for activists, leaders, and high society, yet mutants are the secret leaders working to protect and serve their kind. Behind the scenes they bring their goals into reality.
From the time when mutants became known to the world, SUPER was founded as a black-ops division of the CIA in an attempt to classify, observe, and learn more about this new and rising threat.
The Syndicate works to help bring mutantkind to the forefront of the world. They work from the shadows, a beacon of hope for mutants, but a bane to mankind. With their guiding hand, humanity will finally find extinction.
Since the existence of mutants was first revealed in the nineties, the world has become a changed place. Whether they're genetic misfits or the next stage in humanity's evolution, there's no denying their growing numbers, especially in hubs like New York City. The NYPD has a division devoted to mutant related crimes. Super-powered vigilantes help to maintain the peace. Those who style themselves as Homo Superior work to tear society apart for rebuilding in their own image.
MRO is an intermediate to advanced writing level original character, original plot X-Men RPG. We've been open and active since October of 2005. You can play as a mutant, human, or Adapted— one of the rare humans who nullify mutant powers by their very existence. Goodies, baddies, and neutrals are all welcome.
Short Term Plots:Are They Coming for You?
There have been whispers on the streets lately of a boogeyman... mutant and humans, young and old, all have been targets of trafficking.
The Fountain of Youth
A chemical serum has been released that's shaving a few years off of the population. In some cases, found to be temporary, and in others...?
MRO MOVES WITH CURRENT TIME: What month and year it is now in real life, it's the same for MRO, too.
Fuegogrande: "Fuegogrande" player of The Ranger, Ion, Rhia, and Null
Neopolitan: "Aly" player of Rebecca Grey, Stephanie Graves, Marisol Cervantes, Vanessa Bookman, Chrysanthemum Van Hart, Sabine Sang, Eupraxia
Ongoing Plots
Magic and Mystics
After the events of the 2020 Harvest Moon and the following Winter Solstice, magic has started manifesting in the MROvere! With the efforts of the Welldrinker Cult, people are being converted into Mystics, a species of people genetically disposed to be great conduits for magical energy.
The Pharoah Dynasty
An ancient sorceress is on a quest to bring her long-lost warrior-king to the modern era in a bid for global domination. Can the heroes of the modern world stop her before all is lost?
Are They Coming for You?
There have been whispers on the streets lately of a boogeyman... mutant and humans, young and old, all have been targets of trafficking.
Adapteds
What if the human race began to adapt to the mutant threat? What if the human race changed ever so subtly... without the x-gene.
Atlanteans
The lost city of Atlantis has been found! Refugees from this undersea mutant dystopia have started to filter in to New York as citizens and businessfolk. You may make one as a player character of run into one on the street.
Got a plot in mind?
MRO plots are player-created the Mods facilitate and organize the big ones, but we get the ideas from you. Do you have a plot in mind, and want to know whether it needs Mod approval? Check out our plot guidelines.
Posted by Astrid Dubois on Oct 9, 2017 20:35:56 GMT -6
Gamma Mutant
teal / paleturquoise
Gay
Crushin' Hard on Alice
376
83
Oct 11, 2017 11:40:34 GMT -6
Lix
The choice had been for the best. Alice was too good for her, and she needed to see that. The longer things went, the harder they would be, and Alice would hurt more if she heard it somewhere else. Even if she wasn’t intentionally lying, there was only so long she could stay in the dark, and from the way that she acted, it was going to be a big shock for her.
Astrid wasn’t wrong.
She had turned her back to the girl, so she could only hear the word that came from her lips. Why? Why indeed. She couldn’t give an exact answer for that or trace back in her life exactly when she decided that this was the best path for her. Nor could she tell her why she didn’t just tell her right off the bat. There had been one person that she hadn’t wanted to hurt, and that was exactly what she had done.
The teen drooped her head backward and let her dark hair fall between her shoulderblades while she thought through the question. She had no answers for her, so she remained silent.
Astrid turned back to look at the blue-haired girl when she heard Alice speak again. She didn’t want anything to do with her or their date. It hurt, but she understood. No one really wanted anything to do with her. No one that didn’t have some use for her, anyway. No matter what, she ended up out on her own with no one to blame but herself. It was a vicious cycle of violence that only begot loneliness.
”I am sorry,” she whispered dumbly, as if that could have any impact on the girl after what she’d just shown her. She wasn’t sorry for what she’d done, because she’d needed to do that, but she was sorry that it had hurt Alice. She was sorry that she couldn’t have been good enough for her.
Posted by Astrid Dubois on Sept 25, 2017 19:15:04 GMT -6
Gamma Mutant
teal / paleturquoise
Gay
Crushin' Hard on Alice
376
83
Oct 11, 2017 11:40:34 GMT -6
Lix
There was an emotion that Astrid couldn’t say that she’d felt… well, ever. Guilt wasn’t really something that crossed her mind very often, and it certainly didn’t boil and bubble in her stomach like it was doing right then. She felt like her digestive system was doing backflips as she looked at Alice.
Here was this girl; so good and perfect, and there was Astrid, marred by her mistakes and choices. She shouldn’t have been sitting on that blanket, eating that lovely french food, talking to a lovely girl. She didn’t deserve it. Of all the things that she’d done in her life that were only now starting to cause her anguish, that one made her feel the worst.
How could she just sit there and let this girl talk about hope and good things when Astrid was none of those? So, she’d admitted that she was dangerous. She needed to deal with whatever fallout that caused. If Alice hated her, then so be it. Maybe it would make that awful feeling go away.
Instead of running for cover, though, Alice began to talk about big ideas and how mutants were all seen as dangerous. Astrid simply hung her head and let the words go in one ear and out the other. She didn’t understand. How could she understand? She wasn’t part of Astrid’s world. They were miles apart; why couldn’t she see it before? Alice was far too good for her. Astrid needed to make her see that.
The winged teen had become good at seeing what her public persona was like on the internet. With a deep sigh, she motioned to Alice’s phone and mimicked a typing action. ”Valkyrie, New York,” she told her. It would pull up results of articles written about Astrid’s various escapades around New York City. She had no doubt that that would get her point across to Alice.
While she let that sink it, Astrid gathered herself up and stood up from the picnic blanket. She couldn’t think of much good coming from her staying there, so she turned to leave.
Astrid nodded blankly along to what Alice was explaining. If all those things had happened so long ago, then why were they still an issue? Why did Alice still have to go out and fight for rights? It just didn’t make sense to her.
Still, it was nice to know that legacies really were a thing. Sometimes, it felt like there really wasn’t much left for Astrid to do in the world. She’d lost her purpose when Ragnarok had died out, and it had been a difficult trek back to the mindset that she’d been in when she’d first arrived in New York City. Even with a period of self-discovery and some mindless crime, she wasn’t sure that she would ever be able to get back to the place she was before. Too many things had changed and shifted, leaving her without any solid ground to form goals on.
>>"Honestly there's even bigger issues with our rights. There weren't exactly gay people randomly blowing up a city block by accident or setting buildings on fire. There's just more fear and stuff around mutants."
Astrid nodded along to Alice’s answer about mutants protesting their lack of rights. It made sense, really. There was a lot more going on with mutants than just people being stupid about it. They were… dangerous. Like Astrid was dangerous. Quickly, a shameful thought swept through her mind. She really hadn’t been helping the mutant image very much with all her crime and killing. Sure, it was helping her legacy, but was it helping her in the long run? It certainly wasn’t helping her ability to live her life normally. Or to live it with other people, like Alice.
But since when had that been what she wanted? All along, her one thought had been to become like Isabel, the infamous murderess. She’d wanted to be like her. She had to wonder, though - what had Isabel actually gotten for all her trouble? Was she happy? What had Astrid gotten for all her trouble?
Alone. She’d gotten alone and lonely. None of it pieced together like it used to.
Quickly, she looked away from her date, her mind conflicted. She liked Alice, but she was confusing. She was quickly changing how the world looked, and Astrid wasn’t sure if she liked it. Anxiously, she stuffed another bite of food in her mouth and then looked down at her hands. ”I am being danger,” she admitted. It wasn’t a question, it was a fact. It didn’t really pertain to the conversation, but it was what was going on in her head. Maybe Alice wouldn’t like it, but it was the truth, and she didn’t know how to deal with it.
Posted by Astrid Dubois on Aug 15, 2017 22:42:57 GMT -6
Gamma Mutant
teal / paleturquoise
Gay
Crushin' Hard on Alice
376
83
Oct 11, 2017 11:40:34 GMT -6
Lix
No one died? Well, that was a shame. It was Astrid’s understanding that things were always more fun when people died, but perhaps Alice didn’t share that sentiment. It was just a shame, because everything else about her was so perfect. It wasn’t a deal breaker by any means, though. There were too many good things about Alice for her to walk away or get angry at that point. Maybe, one day, she would even come around.
She nodded along to what Alice was telling her politely, even though it seemed a bit tame to her. She’d seen worse treatment of people, but she wasn’t about to say that. It had been a big deal to people in the past, and it was a big deal to Alice, and now they got to have a date. That was what mattered.
”You are being… protest?” Astrid asked. It made sense that Alice would have been there if she knew that much about everything. Or, at least, it made sense in her head. School was something that should have been attended.
What she was saying about the LGBTQ community actually sounded a lot like a different community to Astrid, though. It was a weird thought that she had put together. Mutants were prosecuted in the same way as they had, only they still were. Sure, for the most part, mutants could walk freely in the streets, but things were still different for them. The was a lot of prejudice surrounding having a mutation, and people could be cruel. Astrid knew that for a fact.
”We are being do same thing as mutants?” she asked curiously, crossing her legs to get more comfortable on the blanket. The food was quickly being picked away, but she wasn’t planning on going anywhere. She still had a hand to hold, after all.
Silently, she wondered what her parents, whoever they were, would have thought of her. They had abandoned their mutant daughter, and now she would be their gay mutant daughter.
Was it possible for a moment to be perfect? For the world to align so well that nothing could seem off or wrong? Astrid would have said no until that moment. Until that perfect moment, when she was eating french bread and holding hands with a pretty girl in a park. She wanted it to last forever and ever so that she could relive it each time, but even she knew that that wasn’t possible. All she could do was savour it while she was there.
The gay heart of New York was a place, not an actual thing, like Astrid was picturing. It was a place that had been instrumental in change and helping people see that being gay really wasn’t a bad thing at all. Really, it sounded sort of amazing. Astrid’s head drooped slightly as she thought about it. It sounded scary to be persecuted for loving someone. Sure, she could probably handle it, but she didn’t want to have to. She was glad that it wasn’t so much of an issue anymore.
People had fought for her to have that right. Really fought for her. She’d fought before, but never with a real purpose. It almost made her feel guilty that she’d never really thought about using her powers to do something other than survive and work for herself. She pushed the thought down, though - she didn’t want to ruin the moment.
”Wow,” Astrid said quietly as she moved onto dessert. ”They are being kill people so we can be the date?” It made sense. To fight was to kill, right? So if they’d fought, then they must’ve killed people. Astrid wondered who exactly they had needed to kill to rid the world of bigotry.
She wanted to know who she could go after to do the same thing.
Astrid was exhausted. The shift to her full crystal form had been hard on her body, and her muscles were revolting against her. All she wanted to do was keep her spot on the floor and let the men continue to drag her along the floor. Only, she knew that wasn’t an option. She knew what would happen if they dragged her off. She knew where they would take her.
So, she had screamed. She had screamed because she knew that she was no longer strong enough to fight them off, and she wasn’t about to shift back and risk getting stuck again. She screamed because she knew that if she did, her mother would do something to save her. It was a selfish, juvenile move, but it was the only one she still had.
Sure enough, the two bodies dropped beside her, dead from the shots that Impact had fired off. Seraph’s eyes grew wide and she scrambled to her feet, spurred on by the voice of Shivs behind her. They needed to get going. They were done. There was a mess in their wake, but they were done, and Astrid could move again. They were going to be okay, right?
The answer was maybe. By saving her daughter, Impact had put her own life at risk by forgetting the fight that she was in, and the adapted woman had taken full advantage of that fact. The teen could only watch as the redhead was slammed against the wall and the gun was knocked from her hand.
Thankfully, Shivs knew what she was doing. Tears had begun to spill from Astrid’s eyes as she looked on from just a little ways away. She wasn’t ready for this. She wasn’t ready for any of it, and she just wanted to go home. They needed to get through the mission, but she wasn’t even sure if she had that in her anymore. It all seemed like this was something designed for someone much older and much wiser than herself, and she had been thrust into it too soon.
Still, she couldn’t leave, and she couldn’t give up. Partially because if she did that she wouldn’t live to experience another day, but mostly because she knew that she loved Impact and Shivs, and she would rise above herself to help them if that was what was required.
She stopped herself from collapsing against the wall and instead followed Shivs to where Impact and the woman were fighting. She was committed to helping, even if it was the last thing that she did. She dropped to a fight stance and stood behind Shivs, ready to follow instruction.
Everything about that situation was new for Astrid. She was hanging out with someone without expectations, in a public place where she didn’t have any ulterior motives. Sure, she hung out with Jude sometimes, but they had a thing going; she would make him food if he taught her English. Both of them actively denied that they didn’t mind the other’s company.
There, on the other hand, Astrid was sitting with someone that she really liked, in a way that she didn’t ever think that she would, and she didn’t feel bad about doing so. She liked it, and there wasn’t even that large of a part of her that wanted to go hit up a convenience store on her way home. The urge was still there, but it was very quiet in comparison to other things.
Other things like the nervous feeling that she had in the pit of her stomach. She’d finished two tarts and moved onto some bread and pate, which tasted very similar to something that she might have had growing up when they got lucky at the orphanage. She didn’t feel even a little bit bad about eating that much food, because Alice was digging in as well.
Thankfully, Alice had made it clear that there was no pressure on their outing. They were just going to sit and enjoy their time together, and, best of all, there would be more chances to make up for any screw ups that she might have. The teen gave her a wide smile after swallowing a piece of bread, imagining more times that they might have like that. She liked that idea a lot.
The best part about everything was that Alice was holding her hand now. She had given it a little squeeze, which sent shivers through Astrid’s whole body. She flipped her hand over so that Alice’s could rest gently on top of it. It just felt natural. ”I would… like to be spend minutes with you.”
She smiled at the thought and took another bite of her bread before she thought back to the earlier conversation. ”What is ‘gay heart of New York’?” she asked, cocking her head at the phrase. It wasn’t something she recognized.
What the heck? Alice was too cute, and now she was complimenting her. Astrid was more than glad that she had taken more time to listen to and memorize English words, since she wasn’t sure that she would have understood what she was saying otherwise. She held the tart up to her face and giggled into it, amused by the notion that her accent was cute. No one had ever told her that before; just that it was annoying or hard to make sense of.
But dear lord, what was she becoming? Sitting on a picnic blanket with a pretty girl, giggling into her tart like some lunatic. She hardly recognized herself anymore, but she… loved it. She loved it and she wanted more.
She listened quietly and ate a bit more food as Alice recounted her recent adventures. It sounded very mundane to be working somewhere, but Astrid smiled anyway. She sounded like she enjoyed it, at least. Astrid wasn’t sure that she would ever have a real job. Then again, she hadn’t thought that she’d ever go on a date, either…
More than anything, she wanted to be supportive of this girl, though. She had no basis on which to form this relationship, but doing so felt natural. ”That is cool. Where is it being?”
University was also a big deal. It meant that Alice was smart enough to aspire to such things. Astrid quietly envied her for having such big aspirations. There were only a few things in that world that Astrid was suited for, and she had already discovered them. The only place that she could go was further into the black, right?
>>"It's been a while since I've had a date, to be honest, and I couldn't imagine a better one to be one."
That comment made Astrid blush and look down. She ate the last bite of her tart and then put her hands down in her lap, smoothing out her skirt. She felt so girly and unnatural, but she sort of liked the feeling. It wasn’t empty, like so much of what she felt otherwise. She would still be the same Astrid (probably), but it couldn’t hurt to embrace this new side of herself, could it?
”I am not being on the date before,” she admitted quietly. It was her first time in that sort of situation. Ever. She looked back up at Alice with wide eyes. ”This is being right, yes?” she had no idea whether or not she was doing anything correctly.
Posted by Astrid Dubois on Aug 2, 2017 22:22:30 GMT -6
Gamma Mutant
teal / paleturquoise
Gay
Crushin' Hard on Alice
376
83
Oct 11, 2017 11:40:34 GMT -6
Lix
It was shiny and it was left out in the open. Aka, it was calling to Astrid.
The teen had been out for a fly around the city, her phone playing an English tape. She’d taken to soaring around over buildings as she attempted to commit sounds to memory. It would just be so much easier to focus on stuff like that if there weren’t so many distracting objects lying about, calling for her to take them.
She swooped low and circled the area, her eyes locked on the target. There seemed to be a little pile of things: a wallet, a phone, and a watch. It was the face of the watch glinting in the sun that had initially caught her eye. It looked sort of expensive, but she knew that the wallet lying next to it would have something more inside of it.
The items were not accompanied, it seemed. Who would leave things out like that? Oh, right. She had somehow made her way down to a pier off of a beach, where people occasionally went on boats or swam. People who liked getting wet, anyway. Astrid found it rather uncomfortable.
She looked around for someone that the things might have belonged to, but she didn’t see all that many people. The only person that she did see had his back to her, and he looked like he was about to dive into the water. Perfect.
With a sparkle in her eyes, Astrid landed and reached out for the little pile. They were hers for the taking.
At least, they had been. She’d waited too long, and was ambushed by a sudden crowd. While she’d had her back turned, the boy that she’d seen before had done something that was clearly cool enough to draw a little crowd. The people pushed their way forward to witness whatever it was, meaning Astrid was pushed with them, smooshed between a stroller and a large man. All that she had managed to grab was the cell phone.
There were too many people, and she was seemingly stuck between them all.
Astrid couldn’t help but smile as she sat down. Alice was so pretty and so… well, everything, that it was hard not to be happy and giddy around her. Things that would have made her puke a year ago suddenly seemed so much better to her. Like picnics and sitting with someone on a date.
Her legs were crossed under her, but her arms seemed too long and gangly for her to know what to do with. The hung awkwardly in front of her as she picked at her hands absently. It gave her something to do with them rather than just placing them in her lap awkwardly.
The food looked amazing. Astrid was a bit of a grazer, so she was always hungry. She’d been eating more while living at Honeycomb, but she still had the homeless mindset where she would eat more than her share in fear that she wouldn’t get her next meal. She didn’t want to start eating before Alice did, though. Even she knew that doing so would be considered rude.
>>"Just go for whatever you want, don't hold back on my account."
Her grin grew at that comment. ”Thanks,” Astrid breathed. She went straight in for the quiche first and took a piece for herself. She didn’t offer Alice one, as her table manners left more than a little to be desired, and instead took a bite right away. It was one of the most delicious things that she had ever tasted. ”This is good,” she complimented, her mouth still a little full.
She set her piece down on a plate and grabbed a tart next. Again, it was magnificent. The girl could cook, too. For a first date, it was going really well. Astrid had no idea how on earth she managed to do that.
>>"How've you been then? Anything exciting happen recently?"
Astrid sat for a minute while she chewed and translated the question in her head. After swallowing, she replied, ”I am good. I am practice my English,” she said proudly. Sessions with Jude had been going well and she had been listening to audio tapes and watching videos to subsidize her learning. Without school or faction responsibilities to fill her days, she had quite a bit of free time on her hands.
”How are you?” she volleyed back. Her manners were slowly improving along with her English.
By that point, Astrid was shaking. The weight was a lot, and she was rather terrified, standing in that hallway. They had already run into trouble of every sort, and it didn’t seem to be letting up at all. What would come next? More guards? More adapteds? Were they ever going to get out alive?
She did her best to push any thoughts like that out of her head as she flashed a look back to her mother and the woman that she was facing. She was right, they still had to complete the mission, despite the complications (which was why there were three of them), and one of them had to be the one to go. Astrid watched as Shivs ran down the hallway to do so. She silently wished the both of them luck.
New guards just seemed to keep coming in. Seraph was not one to kill, but she knew that they were a little out of options there, so things had to be done. Sacrifices had to be made. She shot of a row of crystals as close to the ground as she could possibly manage. If everything went according to plan, then they would only act as flesh wounds, preventing the guards from moving any closer or following them. If the screams of pain that came out of them meant anything, then they would be serious wounds with complications. The teen prayed that it would be the former.
She turned her head back to watch what Impact was doing just down the hallway, not wanting to leave her completely on her own over there. The flow of new guards seemed to have slowed, so she figured that it would be alright to leave them for a little bit.
She had been right to do so. The woman had a gun, and it was about to go off. A hoarse scream erupted from Astrid’s lips as she ducked in front of the shots, blocking them so that Impact could run into the field. The shots ricocheted off of her crystal form and flew toward the guards behind the woman. Neither of them hit, but it certainly sent a few of them ducking for cover.
Astrid took a step forward, finding that doing so put her within the field of the adapted woman. As soon as her leg entered, it shifted back to regular skin. It was so much lighter, and her muscles finally relaxed. The feeling was incomparable.
Despite the fact that she knew how wrong it was to do so, Astrid stepped, nay, barrelled forward so that she was fully within the field. She had sunken to her knees, basking in the feeling of her own skin. Her feather wings hung limply behind her, unable to be used. They were dead weight on her back, but it was nothing compared to what she had been feeling a few minutes before. She was unable to make herself exit the field and unable to think logically. She hardly even reacted when guards moved around the woman and Impact, who were locked in a fight, to grab her by the arms.
Only when they had dragged her a little ways down the hallway did Astrid begin to scream for help.
Long legs dangled from a tree somewhere in the middle of central park. The winged mutant was waiting on something as she sat, her dress splayed out over the bark that she picked at absentmindedly.
Astrid had been a happier camper of late, although a little more of a nervous one. She had switched up her usual ensemble of high heels and poofy skirts a bit to Doc Martins and poofy skirts, so in general, she was a little less grouchy. She also had something to look forward to, but it also made her more terrified than anything else in the world.
She had a date. It wasn’t something that Astrid had ever planned on saying, and she doubted that anyone that knew her would have expected it to happen. She wasn’t really dating material, but somehow, she had found a beautiful girl that liked her for some reason. All she had to do was not screw it up.
They had agreed on a place and time, an interaction made much easier by a text translator. She had also been studying up on her English so that conversations would be a little easier. All she had to do was wait for Alice to let her know that she was ready.
Eventually, her phone buzzed, and Astrid was so excited that she nearly dropped it. The text was complete with an adorable photograph of Alice at the area. Astrid took a moment to stare at it before she scrolled upward. It was hard to believe that she was a real person. Nervously, she typed out a quick reply before taking off of the branch. She was only a little ways away from the spot that they had picked out, so the flight over was very short.
Coming!
By the time that Alice would receive the text, Astrid would already be touching down on the ground. She landed with even better balance than usual, thanks to her flat, comfortable boots. She grinned at the girl and her picnic in front of her, all too excited about what was about to happen. She almost felt like a normal teen, obsessing over a great love and going out with friends and such. It was… strangely comforting.
”Hello,” she greeted, her voice shaky. She sat down on the picnic blanket next to Alice, unsure of what to do with her limbs. She tucked her legs away so that they didn’t disturb the food and then picked at her fingers.
What made Astrid happier than anything else was that Alice liked her wings. The girl’s face lit up with joy as the blue haired girl reacted well to seeing her wings change. For some reason, she had been really worried that she wouldn’t like them, so her reacting well was encouraging.
Her wings always had and always would be a huge part of her life, so Alice had to be okay with them. She just did. Feathers and crystals and whatever else life decided to throw at her.
>>"Have you been able to do that for long?"
Almost as an involuntary response to being talked about, a shiver ran through her wings and her crystals clicked softly against each other, making an almost shimmering noise. ”I am being… one… one… when it change.” she answered as best she could. Eleven was a number that she always forgot. Why couldn’t it just follow a pattern like thirteen and fourteen?
She had expected that there would be some sort of adverse reaction to her shifting her wings in the bar, and she had been right. Astrid shot a glance around and frowned. Usually, she would be glad to have that kind of attention, but she didn’t want anyone to interrupt her with Alice. Quickly, she shifted them back to feather and dropped her head. Hopefully, no one would make a scene.
Alice had apparently gotten a different impression of the situation, though. She spoke loudly about the bar not deserving them, whatever that meant. Astrid honestly was a little lost in the English. ”Uhm… yes!” she agreed loudly, mostly wanting to impress the girl that she was with.
A hand was extended toward her, but all that Astrid could do for a minute or two was stare at it. She’d held hands with people before, but not in the same way. Usually, they were dragging her along to show her something or to kick her out of somewhere. It was never that sweet or welcoming.
Slowly, Astrid set her hand in Alice’s, feeling the softness of the other girl’s skin. It was amazing. She took a shaky breath and stood up. ”Yes, walk is being okay,” she nodded. Being around her was dizzying and confusing, but she wanted more.
Astrid got a message back! I repeat: Astrid got a message back!
The teen was more than used to getting no response to her messages, especially when she had tracked down the numbers of some of the more well-known criminals in New York City (she was still trying with them). She had resigned herself to being the sort of person that got by on her own without messages from anyone. She was okay with that. She was fine on her own.
She was fine on her own.
There was no going back from an Alice message. She stared at her screen with wide eyes and her mouth open a little as she read the words on her screen. The blue haired girl was happy to have her number. She was pretty sure that she knew what that meant, anyway. Either way, she was just glad to have a message from her.
A little part of her wanted to lean forward slightly and sniff the screen. Would the phone smell nice? No, that wasn’t how technology worked. She was pretty sure, anyway. She could always check at home to be sure.
With an extra skip in her thumbs’ movements, she typed out a very simple response. It felt right to send something back, but she didn’t want to ignore the very real girl in front of her for too long.
Me to ! :-)
That looked correct enough to her, anyway. Hopefully, Alice would understand her.
Astrid had explained that her wings had two functions. Well, she had sort of explained, anyway. She wasn’t sure how well it translated to English. Her wings could stab and they could fly; it was as simple as that. Alice seemed a bit confused by the idea, though. Maybe she just needed a visual?
”Uhm…” Astrid trailed off as she looked around the restaurant, trying to decide how much it would freak everyone out if she shifted. There were only a few other occupied tables and everyone looked pretty involved in their own conversations, so she figured that she could swing it. If they freaked out, then they would get over it.
The teen’s shoulders tensed slightly and her wings shifted from feather to crystal, glittering in the cold light of the bar. She sat back slightly in her chair in order to support the change in weight, gave Alice a small smile, and gestured to her extra limbs. ”They are… sharp. Stab,” she elaborated.
Behind them, there was a sudden gasp of surprise as one of the waitresses turned to see her wings. Astrid wasn’t sure, but she figured that she might have been there for one of the… agreements between her and the manager.
As soon as Astrid was handed her phone back, she spent a little while staring at the new entry. The list of her contacts barely filled up the screen on her phone, but the rest already didn’t matter in comparison to Alice Rivers. Such a pretty, fitting name. She tried the best she could to commit everything entered to memory, just in case there was ever a technology apocalypse and she had no way to retrieve the number again.
Her thumbs moved across the screen and typed a quick text out to the blue haired girl:
Hello ! I am Astrid.
She knew enough English to get that typed out, at least. She would have a translator at her disposal later on.
Vaguely, she remembered that there was supposed to be a rule about not texting someone for a little while, but she didn’t particularly care. Why wait when Alice was so pretty and she was suddenly sure about something in her life? It was too good to be true, so she had to hold onto it and make sure that it didn’t implode like everything else had.
They agreed on grapes. That made Astrid smile even wider. Was there anything bad about this girl? A few months ago, Astrid would have been looking for bad things, for someone who murdered and did as they pleased, like Isabel. But now… it was actually nice to talk to someone who had a grip; who was normal. Maybe she was softening or changing, but she sort of liked it. Old Astrid would have puked.
>>"I kind of have to ask but can you fly with your wings? That'd be so cool."
People’s eyes often wandered over to Astrid’s wings or her eyes. It was a little annoying having a physical mutation sometimes, but in that case, Astrid liked the attention. Her wings were a part of her that she couldn’t imagine ever parting with, so if she was going date (Old Astrid: what?) someone, then they had to be cool with the fact that she had two extra limbs. Alice even seemed to be a little mesmerized by them.
”It the flying,” Astrid nodded proudly, giving them a little shake to punctate the fact that they could, in fact, carry her. They would be sort of useless if they didn’t, really. There would be no point to them. ”It are the… stab, too,” she added breezily. Sometimes it escaped her that not everyone was a known murderer. It wasn’t like there was really any other word for it, though.
